An honest politician’s most important job is to create awareness among masses of how well the state is looking after its citizens, thus ensuring that the government is doing its job. Every time I interact with Senator Afrasiab Khattak, I find myself thinking that Pakistani politics can be revived if public wellbeing is our priority. […]
The FATA media blackout
Back in March 2015, I was in Bannu to investigate ‘missing persons’ cases. On this particular day, I had to go to the nearby town of Mir Ali – where Zarb-e-Azb was in full swing – but did not reach there since we were stopped on the road. The operation had displaced an estimated 700,000 […]
Are women part of the tyranny?
It was 1908, and unbridled inequality had come to a breaking point. Women who had been in the workforce for a while now had started refusing to be mistreated. This is when the idea of equality between the two genders came into the mainstream discourse for the first time. 15,000 women marched in New York […]
The Pashtun odyssey is our national odyssey
The fact that thousands of Pashtuns have to demand that a police officer who is accused of the extra-judicial murder of dozens of Pakistani citizens be punished for his actions exposes how weak the justice system in this country is. Pakistan’s Pashtun people haven’t come out in force to voice their concerns in over a […]
These intimidation tactics must stop
Journalist Taha Siddiqui was headed towards the airport in a Careem cab to catch a London-bound flight for a work meeting. It was around 8am. The cab was on the Islamabad highway when it was overtaken and hit on the bumper by another vehicle. About a dozen men, some armed with Kalashnikov rifles and pistols […]
Coordinated riots by armed LYR supporters paralyse life in Lahore
Lahore: The night before, warnings creeped in Lahore Press Club, word went around that violent clashes might break out. Some journalists brainstormed in whispers within their cliques about what they would do in case of an operation. “Technically the protest is illegal, and unconstitutional but it is for the right cause,” a young journalist from […]
Harassment for dummies
To pester, to bother, to annoy, to disturb, to agitate, to provoke, to vex, to wink, to slurp with your tongue while staring her from distance, to press your lips indicatively, to literally touch, to grope, to grab, to fondle, to fiddle physically or virtually is harassment. Small scale fondling, big scale fondling, small scale […]